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The talent of essentially half of the
Czech athletic population has been squandered.
So what do you do if you’re an athletic young Czech with the misfortune
to have been born in the last part of the year? You
can’t
play soccer. The
deck is stacked against you. So maybe you could play the other sport that
Czechs are obsessed with—hockey. But wait. (I think you know what’s
coming.) Here’s the roster of the 2007 Czech junior hockey team that
finished fifth at the world championships.
No.
Player
Birth Date
Position
1
David Kveton
Jan. 3, 1988
Forward
2
Jiri Suchy
Jan. 3, 1988
Defense
3
Michael Kolarz
Jan. 12, 1987
Defense
4
Jakub Vojta
Feb. 8, 1987
Defense
5
Jakub Kindl
Feb. 10, 1987
Defense
6
Michael Frolik
Feb. 17, 1989
Forward
7
Martin Hanzal
Feb. 20, 1987
Forward
8
Tomas Svoboda
Feb. 24, 1987
Forward
9
Jakub Cerny
Mar. 5, 1987
Forward
10
Tomas Kudelka
Mar. 10, 1987
Defense
11
Jaroslav Barton
Mar. 26, 1987
Defense
12
H. O. Pozivil
Apr. 22, 1987
Defense
13
Daniel Rakos
May 25, 1987
Forward
14
David Kuchejda
Jun. 12, 1987
Forward
15
Vladimir Sobotka
Jul. 2, 1987
Forward
16
Jakub Kovar
Jul. 19, 1988
Goalie
17
Lukas Vantuch
Jul. 20, 1987
Forward
18
Jakub Voracek
Aug. 15, 1989
Forward
19
Tomas Pospisil
Aug. 25, 1987
Forward
20
Ondrej Pavelec
Aug. 31, 1987
Goalie
21
Tomas Kana
Nov. 29, 1987
Forward
22
Michal Repik
Dec. 31, 1988
Forward
Those born in the last quarter of the year might as well give up on hockey
too.
Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about
success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss
opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate
achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much
in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And,
most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role
we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and
who doesn’t.
If we chose to, we could acknowledge that cutoff dates matter. We could
set up two or even three hockey leagues, divided up by month of birth. Let
the players develop on separate tracks and then pick all-star teams. If all the
Czech and Canadian athletes born at the end of the year had a fair chance,
then the Czech and the Canadian national teams suddenly would have twice
as many athletes to choose from.
Schools could do the same thing. Elementary and middle schools could
put the January through April–born students in one class, the May through
August in another class, and those born in September through December in
the third class. They could let students learn with and compete against other
students of the same maturity level. It would be a little bit more complicated
administratively. But it wouldn’t necessarily cost that much more money, and
it would level the playing field for those who—through no fault of their own
—have been dealt a big disadvantage by the educational system. We could
easily take control of the machinery of achievement, in other words—not just
in sports but, as we will see, in other more consequential areas as well. But
we don’t. And why? Because we cling to the idea that success is a simple
function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and
the rules we choose to write as a society don’t matter at all.
6.
Before the Memorial Cup final, Gord Wasden—the father of one of the
Medicine Hat Tigers—stood by the side of the ice, talking about his son
Scott. He was wearing a Medicine Hat baseball cap and a black Medicine Hat
T-shirt. “When he was four and five years old,” Wasden remembered, “his
little brother was in a walker, and he would shove a hockey stick in his hand
and they would play hockey on the floor in the kitchen, morning till night.
Scott
always
had a passion for it. He played rep hockey throughout his
minor-league hockey career. He always made the Triple A teams. As a first-
year peewee or a first-year bantam, he always played on the [top] rep team.”
Wasden was clearly nervous: his son was about to play in the biggest game of
his life. “He’s had to work very hard for whatever he’s got. I’m very proud of
him.”
Those were the ingredients of success at the highest level: passion, talent,
and hard work. But there was another element. When did Wasden first get the
sense that his son was something special? “You know, he was always a
bigger kid for his age. He was strong, and he had a knack for scoring goals at
an early age. And he was always kind of a standout for his age, a captain of
his team….”
Bigger kid for his age? Of course he was. Scott Wasden was born on
January 4, within three days of the absolute perfect birthday for an elite
hockey player. He was one of the lucky ones. If the eligibility date for
Canadian hockey were later in the year, he might have been watching the
Memorial Cup championship from the stands instead of playing on the ice.
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